Janice, one of Vet2Be's sweet, old goats, has always had a very hard time keeping up on her copper. Her nose is bald and she always has a bald spot on her head.
Lately she has had a harder time jumping up on the milk stand, too. Poor girl! She is such a sweet goat and is a wonderful mom. She'll let any baby nurse from her!
We've bolused her a number of times with the Copasure copper bolus that we've re-dosed into smaller capsules. It doesn't seem to matter how many we give her, she just doesn't get hair on her nose! In the spring she sheds until she is almost bald, too. The first year it really worried me. But we've had her for a few years now and it was normal for her to shed like that, so I didn't worry quite as much.
Hubby mixed up some copper sulfate into some brown sugar. Vet2Be is giving her 3 ml a day now. We'll see if that's enough to get enough copper into her. We can't put the copper sulfate into the water because we have sheep and llamas. They can't tolerate that much copper. The nice thing about having a small herd is that we can manage nutritional needs on an individual basis. That is not something that is possible in a large herd or a commercial operation.
One thing that I noticed within three days was that she has a much easier time jumping up on the milk stand! It is a wonderful sight to see her hop up like she used to.
Why did he mix it with brown sugar and do you have a recipe? I give my goats either copper sulfate in their water or in their feed. It would be nice to have another option. Thanks...
ReplyDeleteHe mixes it with brown sugar because they like 'sweet' stuff! We usually have to hold the syringe really tightly because otherwise they would eat that, too.
ReplyDeleteSome goats don't like it at first, so we will squirt it on their grain ration. We keep offering it to them in the syringe in hopes that they will eventually take it that way. If they will take it from the syringe, then we know exactly how much they are getting and we can dose according to the animal.
I'll see if I can get the recipe from him.
However, we looked at all the sources of copper (grain, hay, and loose mineral supplement) before Hubby decided how much should go into our mix.
Thank you! Based on the amount of copper in the mix I can figure out how much I want to give my goats...
ReplyDeleteDid you ever get the recipe from your husband?
ReplyDeleteHi Linda,
ReplyDeleteI'm working on it! I've asked him a few times, but he has been out of town almost as often as he has been home. He is running 4 businesses right now--hoping one takes off and does well.
I'll ask him again.... and here's hoping he remembers!
Oh, ok... that is understandable. Thank you.
ReplyDeletehi, could you please tell me where you get your copper sulphate? is it the blue stuff or?
ReplyDeletethanks
I think you can get it at any farm supply store. Hubby is a chemist, so he orders it through a chemical supply company. But I've seen it locally at the farm supply store.
ReplyDelete